Some prior art inline reciprocating saw have a shoe pivotally attached at the front end adjacent to the blade. The shoe is engaged with the workpiece during cutting to aid in guiding the movement of the saw relative to the workpiece. To permit the angle of the blade to be varied from 90.degree. during cutting, the shoe is pivotally attached to the saw body. Typically, the shoe is attached to the body through a hinge. The hinge is formed by a pair of tabs forwardly extending from the saw body and a pair of tabs rearwardly extending from the shoe. Conventional techniques for forming a durable hinge pivot such as a pin(s) or rivet(s) extending through apertures in the tabs have proven to be unreliable and/or expensive. For example, the hinge pivot may be formed by a pin(s) welded in the shoe tab apertures. In use the welded connection can be broken when the hinge is twisted and a force transverse to the pin is applied. The welded pin forms a lever arm thereby magnifying the transverse force and increasing the risk of breaking the connection. While it is possible to form a weld that would be durable under such loads, the cost of manufacture and assembly time are excessive.
Alternatively if a rivet is used to form the hinge pivot, the rivet is subject to failure due to fatigue. Thus riveting has not proven to be an acceptable technique.
Accordingly it is desirable to develop a more reliable, low cost hinge for attaching the shoe to a reciprocating saw.